[applause]

>> cue the drums. we are ready to go here. please give a warm welcome tuesday korean-american musical group for tonight's opening program. we're in a wonderful? founded 18 years ago, the music and art culture center's mission is to raise across cultural awareness, inspired artistic expression, has and from the arts education and preservation of cultural values on long korean-americans and thier youth.

since coming to the u.s. in the early 1990's, she has been a pioneer in educating youth and the general public on caribbean dance in the san francisco bay area. -- korean dance in the san francisco bay area. once again, are round of applause for our opening number. it is such a pleasure to be with you here tonight for this special celebration. please stand now for our national anthem, sung by ayumi perry. ayumi. >> ♪ oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light

what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly str eaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night

that our flag was still there o say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ [applause] >> and up in coming -- an up- and-coming singer-songwriter. thank you for the beautiful rendition of the national anthem. please be seated now. >> cameras, cameras. >> and if you are a sponsor and

are looking for your seat, we have them all down here, all reserved for you. come on down we are here to observe the seventh annual asian pacific american heritage awards in the city and county of san francisco. this year's theme -- celebrate the heritage, celebrated community voices. and to recognize the many contributions of our city's the reverse asian communities and their -- diverse asian communities and their efforts to promote tolerance and understanding between communities of color. 20 years ago, president carter signed into law a resolution declaring one week in the month of may as asian-pacific american heritage week. in 1990, that celebration was expanded to the entire month of may and in 1991, legislation was

signed into law, proclaiming asian-pacific heritage month in may to be a permanent celebration in united states. that is wonderful for us. thank you again for being here this evening. back in 2005, mayor newsom enthusiastically supported the idea of a celebration each year that would include all apa communities in the city and county of san francisco, where -- get this. more than one-third of the population is asian-american and pacific islander. you rock. our next speaker is no stranger to this event, but within the last few years, he represented mayor newsome at this very

celebration. in january of this year, a new chapter was written when the board of supervisors unanimously voted in city administrator edwin lee to be the mayor of san francisco. he was noted as the best candidate for leading the city for work because of his more than 25 years of experience as a leader in city government. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the hon. edwin m. lee, the mayor of san francisco. [applause] mayor lee: thank you. thank you for that wonderful introduction and thank you for being here. it is the seventh annual celebration.

sydney already explained our history, what president carter did for us, and what we are doing for ourselves, joining the whole city and region in celebrating asian-pacific portage month. i am so grateful to the board of supervisors for this whole four months of leaving this great city. i will say once again as i have said through many corners of the city, whether it is a town hall meeting or just your regular family association dinner, the hundreds i have been too -- i really feel proud of our asian community as a whole for allowing me to serve this great city and for all the years of struggle and coordinating and push to keep the doors of

government open and to keep opportunities for many generations of asians to serve this wonderful city. thank you. i continue to thank the board of supervisors for this historic vote that happened in january. saying that, i want to kick off the celebration by doing the appropriate thing, signing the declaration that declares this month asian pacific american heritage month. i would like you to join with me the fantastic group of council generals here. if i can call up to join me -- the council generals from canada, china, japan, korea -- please join me. please come up. if i may, i would like each

share of our apa volunteer committee to please come up and board president david chiu. and our new police chief, please come on up, chief greg suhr. please join us. [applause]

>> just take a picture. together -- thank you very much everyone. [applause] mayor lee: thank you.

thank you, everyone. [applause] >> the mayor wants to know if he can keep his hat? [laughter] [unintelligible] thank you very very much. next, someone who represents another first in our city's history. three years ago, district 3 elected the first chinese- american to the board of supervisors, and immediately after he was sworn in, history was made again as he was sworn in as the board president. please welcome supervisor david to come here on behalf of the sentences go board of supervisors -- david chiu.

>> aloha. it is an incredible honor to be here with you tonight. after 163 years, this is a glorious sight. i have spoken with mayor lee about the history of our community and we talk about what happened in 1870's with the first anti-asian exclusion acts. we talk about what happens after the 1906 earthquake when chinese residents were fighting not to be moved to a different part of the city. we talk about the japanese- american internment in the 1940's and we talk about the anti-communist purge of the asian-american communities here in san francisco in the 1950's. moving along to 1977 and the

fall of the international hotel. our friends, we have come a long way. [applause] i have to tell you the most amazing moment of the year of 2011 was the first meeting of the board of supervisors this year on january 8, leading to the vote that we first cast for the first asian-american mayor in the city and county of san francisco. this was a vote that came about because you, the people of san francisco, elected four asian- american to the board of supervisors. and not just three chinese representatives, but the first korean-american representative, and i am so honored to represent the four of them, to welcome you here to this celebration.

we have decided to implement a new yearly award, with each of our district supervisors recognizing a 11 awardees representing the best, brightest, most impact low in our community we will be honoring as part -- most impactful in our community we will be honoring as part of apa heritage month. in district 1 -- in district two, alexander ong, district three, mr. byung, district four, the store manager of the sunset district good will, martin lamb, in district 5, rodney chen, district 6,

steven lee, the leader of aspire, district 7, a longtime democratic activist, district 8, the founding executive director of the chinatown community development center gordon chen, strychnine shirley chen, district 10, a community leader and visitation valley, and last but not least, the business woman and president of an iron works co., florence kong. could you join me in thanking all of their leadership? [applause] the last thing i want to say is we have been celebrating our heritage for 163 years, and i look forward to another 163 years of celebration. thank you very much for being

here. >> supervisor chiu, thank you very much. this is the seventh year that san francisco has held an official celebration for asian americans. the plans are the culminated efforts of the members of the mayor's asian-pacific american heritage celebration committee. please welcome me and joining claudine cheng for her remarks on this year's celebration. >> thank you, everyone, for joining us for our celebration this year. the theme of our celebration is celebrate heritage, celebrated community voices. the community is selected this

team for two reasons. one -- the community recognizes we care about this city, that we want our interest to be addressed, and how do we do that? we need our voices to be heard. the second reason -- we would like to inspire and encourage the next generation of leaders to be engaged and affected community voices. so far, this year, we have decided to dedicate our award to individuals and business organizations that have been effective community voices. there is a listing of all the finalists in the program books. they have all been magnificent. thank you on behalf of the community. i hope -- i know all of them are here tonight and i would like to ask them to stand and be recognized. all of our awards finalists, please stand and be recognized.

[applause] and just like every single one of you, i look forward to hearing who the award recipients will be, but really all of you of done such great work and we thank you so much. we want to thank all the members of the apa heritage celebration committee. many of you have been generous in thanking me, but not me. it is a committee of volunteers. we need for six months out of the year to plan our celebration every year, and without everyone being a part of it, this would not have happened. please thank them and give them our round of applause. [applause] this is the seventh year we are part of the city's official

celebration. i want to thank mayor edwin lee and his entire staff. members of the board of supervisors, the apa official elected families. this is the first year with ask for a personal contribution to our celebration. i want to thank both of you. last, but not least, the celebration every year has included a lot of community efforts to spread the word that the month of may is apa heritage month, to put on the kind of public relations effort need to in the city and county of san francisco. we will have a reception in the green room afterwards. no contribution is too small, but i would like to take this opportunity to invite our major sponsors up here as we do have

an appreciation gift for you. to start our work, i would like to invite are presenting sponsor. this is the first year we have up presenting sponsor. we would like to invite president david t [applause] >> just very briefly, on behalf of target, just very privileged to be part of this. it is a new day and it's an

exciting day. never before have we celebrated asian pacific heritage month and the landscape as we are today. with the ever-changing population, with the political landscape, heck, we even saw the first chinese american nba player, and we are proud to be part of it and celebrate throughout the month of may. so thank you very much for having us. [applause] >> we have our returning heritage champion, pacific gas and electric represented by ontario smith. ontario? and pg&e has been there since day one. [applause]

[applause] and next joining us at the heritage partners level we have rebecca delgado representing the academy of universities. is rebecca here? [applause] and representing at&t we have jason chan. jason?

jason is probably busy making phone calls. right here. [applause] and representing bank of america, rosana lunge. [applause]

and representing croft , ron lowe, ron? [applause] we have mcdonald's and their representative did not make it and the last one on the list, ross bargo who has been with us for many years, tracy tran, tracy? [applause] tracy has not made it yet. so really, thank you very much. and for joining us and hope to see you again next year.

and it's so special that our new police chief is with us. and would you like to say a few words? [applause] >> i don't think that that was actually a question. [laughter] i'm just really pleased to be here. i wasn't prepared to say anything. but just the culture and what it does for the community, it really does leave me without much to say other than thank you for everybody does. and thanks for having me. [applause] >> thank you, chief. and thank you, claudine. i hope you were able to meet some. greeters in the lobby before the event started. and you may have noticed they were selling these little pins.

you see this a.p.a. heritage month pin? it's the image of the heritage month logo designed in the form and shape of an a. and it's a beautiful piece. but what is even more important is all the proceeds from the sale of this pin will go to the japanese cultural and community center of northern california to support the relief efforts for the victims of the earthquake in japan. so please, take a moment to take a look. and purchase one for a very, very good caution. at this time, the celebration committee would like to acknowledge the presence of the many officials and diplomatic representatives from the asian pacific countries joining us here tonight. you saw many. counsel -- many of the consul generals up here. their representatives, please stand and be acknowledged. [applause] thank you all for being here. and in addition to the presenting champion and partner sponsors, there are so many